Music Scene: Counting Crows full of surprises

Friday

Jul 23, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 23, 2010 at 11:17 PM

Counting Crows has always been the kind of rock band that loves surprising its audience with unlikely covers. That’s why, even if it’s been two years since the last album, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings,” their current tour promises to include plenty of music not heard before.

Jay N. Miller

Counting Crows has always been the kind of rock band that loves surprising its audience with unlikely covers. That’s why, even if it’s been two years since the last album, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings,” their current tour promises to include plenty of music not heard before.

The tour, dubbed the Counting Crows Traveling Circus and Medicine Show, features several opening acts, including indie-popsters Augustana.

“We’re playing this tour in a different sort of format,” said David “Immy” Immergluck, the band’s multi-instrumental wizard.

“We’re always pointing toward another Counting Crows record, of course, but this time we’re working with different bands, and trying some weird arrangements of our own old songs, and some new covers.”

Immergluck, 46, dates to the band’s formative days, when he, songwriter Adam Duritz, and David Bryson began jamming together around 1989. By 1993 the band’s debut, “August and Everything After,” had vaulted to the top of the charts, with the memorable single “Mr. Jones.” While he has appeared on every Counting Crows album, Immergluck didn’t become a full-time member until 1999 – mainly because he was so busy as a member of Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, The Monks of Doom, and as a session player skilled at guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, and several other instruments.

“Adam and I go back to 1984,” Immergluck said, “but when Counting Crows was going full steam, it was an all-consuming thing, and I didn’t want to do that initially. They toured for something like two-and-a-half years at one point. Now, when Counting Crows lays off for nine months or so, I’m able to do all my other projects.”

Having Augustana on this revue-styled tour is a bonus. The two groups have toured a lot together and enjoy playing together, too.

“Augustana’s guys have sung on our albums, and Adam sings on their latest album,” Immergluck said. “We may all harmonize at some point on these dates.”

Most of the tour also includes a set from Notar, a rap artist from New York City that Duritz has signed to his label.

“Adams’ label is about to release Notar’s album,” said Immergluck, “and we play on it, which was a lot of fun.”

“The whole idea of this ‘Traveling Circus and Medicine Show’ is to recapture some of the feel of those classic shows Bill Graham promoted in San Francisco in the ’60s,” Immergluck said. “It might seem like a big mismatch of genres, but we all believe genres are meaningless – if you like good music, you like it whatever it is.”

Interacting with their tour mates, jamming, impromptu mashups, are not only possible, it’s a big part of the show.

“This is a fine way to keep it interesting and fresh for ourselves,” said Immergluck. “Stuff like that has a long tradition in the (San Francisco) Bay Area, where for instance Steve Miller did some unbelievable shows with Boz Scaggs sitting in.”

And of course that well known Counting Crows tradition of rolling out totally unlikely cover songs is alive and well. Even if inquiring journalists can’t prod any predictions out of Immergluck.

“We like to keep those things secret until we play ’em,” he said, laughing. “Seriously, we’re modeling this tour after Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour in the early ’70s, and Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tours, where you have a traveling bunch of musicians and any and all combinations are possible. Some of the songs we’ll be doing reflect that as well, all of that vibe. We will definitely be changing our sets from night to night, so if people see us at Cohasset, and want to also come to the Cape Cod show, they will absolutely see a different show. ”

OK, perhaps we can get a hint from asking Immergluck what he’ll be playing most? “I play mostly electric guitar on this tour,” Immergluck said. “I also play a lot of mandolin. I’m trying to work in more pedal steel, which I always love playing because it is the one I’m least familiar with. Pedal steel is still mysterious to me, so I love that.”

In what was yet another symptom of the shrinking record business, Counting Crows were summarily dropped from Geffen Records last year, after 18 successful years on the label. But Duritz has simply started his own label, and the newfound freedom promises to give the band a creative boost.

“We always did have control, even with the label,” Immergluck said.

“The music business is in a strange position right now, and it’s hard to say what advice I could give a new band,” Immergluck said with a rueful chuckle. “The fact that we have been Counting Crows since 1989, and have had hit records out since ’93, is a huge advantage. Our longtime advantage makes it easier for us to maintain a presence online, and release our own records, and still have folks show up for our concerts. But for a new band starting out, without a label, even today, it is a big challenge.”

Well, OK, let’s get theoretical. Is there any particular song from another artist that Counting Crows hasn’t done yet, which Immergluck would love to tackle?